In a day that was dominated by Zimbabwe in general and the Flower brothers in particular, India were able to get into the limelight for the wrong reason in the Bulawayo Test match. In a rare occurrence in Test history, India's left-arm medium fast bowler Ashish Nehra was banned from bowling any further in the innings for running onto the danger area of the pitch. He was stopped by Australian umpire DJ Harper, four balls into his 27th over and was handed over his cap and sweater. He was already given two official warnings by the other umpire R Tiffin. Meanwhile, Zaheer Khan too has received two warnings and one more can see him out of the game as well. Meanwhile the Flower brothers dominated the day. They came together after the fall of Stuart Carlisle's wicket and batted right through out the afternoon session ruling out speculations of a three-day finish. Zimbabwe ended the day on 303 for seven and are ahead by 158 runs with still two days to go in the Test match.

Nehra not the first

The Indian team has been cautioned by the South African match referee Dennis Lindsay for over appealing and remonstrating against decisions. Lindsay spoke to the coach John Wright, skipper Sourav Ganguly and vice captain Rahul Dravid. Though it has not been taken as an official warning the Indian's were told in no uncertain terms that they better behave.

Australia shrugged off any concerns over their form in the build up to their first major game on the tour of England. Pakistan who were tottering at 85-6 were rescued by a gallant 124 run seventh wicket partnership between Yousuf Youhana and keeper Rashid Latif that enabled them to reach 257. Although Pakistan got Adam Gilchrist out early to a snorting delivery from Shoaib Akhtar, they failed to make more inroads quickly enough as Australia cruised to victory with seven wickets and more than four overs to spare. Shoaib Akhtar's fitness was yet again in doubt as he left the field and did not return after he bowled 5 overs that were rather expensive.

Australian fast bowler Brett Lee who was not in the original one-day squad, made a come-back to the side, when Jason Gillespie had to pull out due an injury at the last moment. Lee who made the initial breakthrough in the Pakistani innings however conceded 85 runs in his 10 overs - to record the worst ever bowling performance by an Australian bowler in ODIs. Fellow teammate Glenn McGrath had conceded 76 runs off his 9.4 overs against Sri Lanka at Melbourne on January 16, 1996.

Dennis Amiss, the chief executive of the Warwickshire County Cricket Club and other officials are reported to have worked all night to come up with a report on the crowd chaos that prevailed on the ground in the one-day match between England and Pakistan on June 7 at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Former England opening batsman Amiss said that his team had learnt its lessons from the event and said it was necessary to evaluate the situation with all concerned so that such incidents are not repeated. He said he was confident that the conclusions drawn from his report will erase any threats to the venue from hosting further international matches.

The West Indies have announced their teams for the tour of Zimbabwe. West Indies will join India and Zimbabwe to play a triangular one-day tournament followed by Test matches. Fast bowlers Colin Stuart, Reon King and Corey Collymore who were not played against South Africa were recalled for this tour as the team will now have to learn to live without the comforting presence of Courtney Walsh. The Test and one day teams are as follows.

One-day squad: C Hooper (Capt), S Chanderpaul, C Cuffy, M Dillon, D Ganga, C Gayle, W Hinds, C Collymore, R Jacobs, K Jeremy, R King, B Lara, M Samuels, R Sarwan, N McGarrell, M Nagamootoo.

Test squad: C Hooper (Capt), S Chanderpaul, C Cuffy, M Dillon, R Jacobs, D Ganga, C Gayle, R King, B Lara, M Samuels, N McGarrell, L Garrick, D Ramnarine, R Sarwan, C Stuart and C Collymore,.

Former West Indian opener Gordon Greenidge said that it was high time the various islands of the West Indies adopt a similar approach to the game as he believes West Indian cricket has now become the laughing stock of the world. Greenidge, the batting coach of the national team said his country is being left behind by other Test nations in terms of spotting and developing new talent. Greenidge called for a unified approach towards this from all the island nations.

The Goa police it seems have enough evidence regarding the involvement of the president of the Goa Cricket Association Dayanand Narvekar and his secretary Vinod Phadke, in the sale of fake tickets for the India-Australia one-day match played at Goa on April 6th. Several thousand ticket holders became victims of police batoncharge and were denied entry into the stadium on the day of the one-dayer as it was packed to capacity. The police disclosed that this evidence had been brought forth when the suspects were interrogated.

The proposed South Africa A team's tour of India that was originally planned in September this year has been postponed. The uncertain weather that is likely to be caused by the presence of the monsoon in India in September has been cited as the reason for the postponement. The South African A team has plans to tour India, Australia and Kenya during the next season.

India's Law Minister Arun Jaitley was elected unopposed as the president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association. Jaitley was the lone candidate for the post and will hold the position for a second term.

India and Sri Lanka are scheduled to play in England between June-September 2002. The NatWest one-day tri-series from June 27-July 13 will be a ten-match series between these two teams and the host England. India are also scheduled to play four Tests in England after the triangular series. The schedule is as follows:

NATWEST ONE-DAY TRISERIES 2002
June 27: England v Sri Lanka (Trent Bridge, floodlit).
June 29: England v India (Lord's).
June 30: India v Sri Lanka (the Oval).
July 2: England v Sri Lanka (Headingley).
July 4: England v India (Durham, floodlit).
July 6: India v Sri Lanka (Edgbaston).
July 7: England v Sri Lanka (Old Trafford).
July 9: England v India (the Oval).
July 11: India v Sri Lanka (Bristol, floodlit).
July 13: Final (Lord's).

TEST SERIES - ENGLAND V INDIA July 25-29: 1st Test (Lord's)
Aug 8-12: 2nd Test (Trent Bridge)
Aug 22-26: 3rd Test (Headingley)
Sept 5-9: 4th Test (the Oval)

SCORES AT A GLANCE